Pitch PR lands international duties for 2014 Commonwealth Games

The agency has been retained to lead international comms, including delivering a media plan, working with key partners and promoting the organising committee’s CEO, David Grevemberg.

Pitch will also be tasked with project work including ticketing, athlete announcements and promoting the Queen’s Baton Relay, which will open the Games and feature all 71 competing nations.

However, PRWeek understands that some agencies had been put off pitching by concerns over the ratio of remuneration to expected output for the budget.

A tender document seen by PRWeek stated that the work would be worth between £100,000 and £120,000, with a focus on capitalising on the ‘global ambitions’ of the Games.

The scope of the work was described by one sports PR agency insider as ‘unaligned’ with the fee, which covers all costs and expenses incurred by the agency or any subcontractors it uses.

‘Running a PR operation of that size is a major bit of work,’ he said. ‘It would be a great prize to have as a client and you would take it on as something to shout about, but it would have cost our agency money to do it properly.’

Pitch PR and Glasgow 2014 declined to comment on the appointment, but a Glasgow 2014 spokesperson said: ‘Glasgow 2014 is primarily funded from the public purse and it is our responsibility to deliver best value for money.’

The Games will be held from 23 July to 3 August next year and will feature more than 6,500 athletes. Ticket sales are expected to exceed a million.

The pitch document added that awareness of the event had been boosted by the ‘bounce effect’ of last year’s Olympic and Paralympic Games.

However, it also pointed to the ‘challenge’ of gaining media coverage in the UK’s ‘decade of sport’, which includes the 2015 Rugby Union World Cup and 2017 World Athletics Championships.